Monday, February 11, 2013

Lutheran Synod Adds to Fractures in Society

Rev. Robert Morri

In
an obvious act of insanity, a Lutheran pastor chose to attend an interfaith
vigil held in Newtown, Connecticut in the aftermath of the Dec. 14 massacre of
children in the Sandy Hook Elementary School there.Naturally, the Rev. Robert Morris was
recently chastised for his actions by the Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod for such
brazen defiance of church rules and his religious duties.

After
all, clergy from other Christian sects, Islam, Judaism and Baha’i were there,
not to mention community leaders and the president of the United States.It’s a wonder Rev. Morris would even have
considered such shameful action.

Harrison

Rev.
Morris was duly apologetic once the error was forcefully pointed out to him by
the Synod’s leader Matthew Harrison. He added an excuse for his deplorable act. “I
believed my participation to be, not an act of joint worship, but an act of
community chaplaincy,” Rev. Morris explained.He is, after all, the new pastor of Christ the King Lutheran Church in Newtown.

To
the Synod, however, Morris had acted in an unforgivable way by daring to join
with his colleagues, grieving parents and community members in respect for the
dead.

“The
presence of prayers and religious readings” made the Newtown vigil joint
worship, and therefore off-limits to Missouri Synod ministers,” Harrison wrote
in a letter.He added that Morris’
participation also offended members of the denomination.

Who’s
really crazy: the minister seeking to join with a stunned community in need of
spiritual help or a sanctimonious sect determined to maintain its elitist, sanctimonious
attitude?

All
Harrison and the Synod did was to guarantee divisions remain within society,
which can only function well when all groups work together. And, Harrison is the same man who said when sworn in as the new president that he would
"work as hard as I possibly can for the unity around the clear and
compelling Word of God and nothing else." Hmm. The unity part somehow got lost along the way.

The arrogance of the Synod, which represents
2.3 million Americans, merely encourages the kind of hatred and irrational
thinking that led to Sandy Hook.

David Benke

On the other
hand, the Synod is definitely consistent. In
2001, a New York pastor also was suspended for "praying with pagans" in an interfaith
service held in Yankee Stadium after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. President of the Synod’s Atlantic District,
David Benke, was later reinstated.

Then,
too, the Synod is keeping with the attitude expressed by former Catholic monk
Martin Luther, who in the 1500s founded the faith named for him.Luther wrote in his book, Sermons on the Gospel of St. John, that
“whoever wants to be a Christian must be intent in silencing the voice of
reason.”

Luther
also recommended killing Jews and others be killed.“If I had all Franciscan friars in one
house,” he exclaimed, “I would set fire to it.”He added in a 1520 letter, “The word of God is a sword, is war, is ruin,
is scandal.”

No
doubt, the Synod would love to live up to that credo, too.

Fredric March as Brady

In
a deliciously irony, Synod leader Matthew Harrison bears almost the same name
of the fundamentalist leader in the play (and movie) Inherit the Wind.It retells
the real 1925 Scopes trial when a biologist was arrested in Tennessee for
daring to teach evolution.Matthew
Harrison Brady (left) led the opposition to science, basing his claims totally on the
Bible.In the subsequent trial, he was
ridiculed and humiliated by the protagonist, Henry Drummond.

The
current person bearing that name seems just as narrow minded.

It
can be no surprise that Luther helped kindle the vicious European religious
wars that eventually led philosophers away from faith and into the Age of
Reason.Those blood-soaked battles also sparked the idea of religious freedom that eventually became the hallmark of
this country.

Martin Luther

In
a way, then, Luther helped inaugurate a way of thinking toward less inhumanity
and a more liberal attitude toward all faiths.

The
Synod’s most recent decision isn’t going to push us further in a positive
direction, but it will serve to further isolate fundamentalists who would
rather pretend no one else has a valid religious faith.

They
will not be missed whenever any community comes together to honor and remember
those who have fallen.

Long-time
religious historian Bill Lazarus regularly writes about religion and religious
history.He also speaks at various
religious organizations throughout Florida.You can reach him at www.williamplazarus.net.He is the author of the famed Unauthorized
Biography of Nostradamus; The Last Testament of Simon Peter; The Gospel Truth: Where Did the Gospel
Writers Get Their Information; Noel:
The Lore and Tradition of Christmas Carols;and Dummies Guide to Comparative
Religion.His books are available on Amazon.com,
Kindle, bookstores and via various publishers.He can also be followed on Twitter.

You
can enroll in his on-line class, Comparative Religion for Dummies, at
http://www.udemy.com/comparative-religion-for-dummies/?promote=1

About Me

During his career, Bill has been a newspaper reporter, magazine writer/editor, advertising copywriter and writer/editor of NASCAR programs, among other jobs. He has won three international awards for stories and programs while working for International Speedway Corp. and was named 2000 Florida Feature Writer of the Year.
He has published four books to date and his writing has appeared in hundreds of local, regional, state and national publications.